As personal computers continue to grow in popularity and use, demand for high quality peripherals, such as printers, and associated components, such as paper and label stock, also continues to grow. A variety of printers are known, including dot matrix, laser, and ink jet printers. In recent years, ink jet printers have enjoyed growing popularity, in part due to the availability of colored inks.
As computer technology has improved and developed, and new software and printer designs have enabled a tremendous variety of fonts, designs, and even photographs to be printed with computer printers, demand for high quality films, papers, labels, and similar imprintable substrates has also grown. Although efforts have been made to produce high quality ink-receptive sheet materials, such as films, papers and labels, a continuing need exists for high quality, ink-receptive constructions, particularly ink jet-imprintable constructions, characterized by high resolution, high color density, good color gradation, and other print qualities, as well as a need for materials that facilitate fast drying of water-based inks, smudgeproofness, waterfastness, and compatibility with both pigment-based and dye-based inks. The ideal product should be low cost and easily processed, and usable with a variety of inks and printing conditions.